What began as a simple journey has turned into so much more...

If only we had known...

The game began later in the evening of Summer 38, 998 AC. The group was hosting a gathering of High Lords (and their Death Avenger bodyguards) to discuss the best solution to the Cappodocian Uprising. Prior to the meeting, Akara received a missive from Mother Superior Mary Eunice of the Empty Aviary:

The dead have begun to rise around my facility. I cannot administer to the Unseen Talons while fighting off these foes. You must take up the mantle of Field Commander. All of our Queen’s Avengers on the East Coast are at your disposal. I have included a list that is ritually linked to their Raven Feathers, so you can monitor their vital status.

As the High Lords & their bodyguards arrived, the party’s attention was drawn to Brother Gravell, a dwarf who’d brought a cave down on himself and a cult of Vecnites, and had suffered severe head trauma as a result. Jak ended up taking Brother Gravell off to the side, where he couldn’t bother anyone with his simple-minded craziness.

During the discussions, Nikolai presented a magical presentation of the undead threat (in an AMAZING powerpoint). But then things started to go wrong. Volcania Glass, a shardmind Avenger, psychically warned Akara to look at her list. Over half the Avengers listed on it were indicated as dead or near death. Unbeknownst to everyone, Brother Gravell (under direction from the Eye of Vecna) had put up an illusion of himself that Jak was watching, and had been going around invisibly poisoning the drinks of the Avengers and High Lords.

When they all burst out as vampire spawn, the combat was fast and furious. In the end, High Lord Moradinson was dead, as were most of the Avengers (including Brother Gravell). The Eye of Vecna managed to escape, erasing memories of its presence. However, the ghosts of the Avengers stuck to the Gortonsalt Estate, haunting it instead of moving on. Apparently they’d seen Bernard’s soul get sucked up into the sky, towards an airship, and did not want to risk the same fate.

As they looked outside at the rest of the city, screams rose up… it appeared the undead uprising had begun.

Wait, does he have a zipper on his head?

NOTE: Greg/Fury was not present for this game. Fury was just in the background for most scenes as a result.

We began on the River Queen, the riverboat that was ferrying most of the party to Brakana, capital of Coventry. As their ship arrived, Jak also arrived at the dock with the carts (turns out he made MUCH better time than expected, like due to the drakes).

Some pirates attacked as soon as the party was visible on deck. It was a hard-hitting fight, with Akara going down below 0 HP before things were through (FYI, the elemental, pirate, & dragonborn commandant were all lv7, with the snake at lv5, so that’s pretty standard for a challenge at your level. Then again, that dborn soldier was able to hit hard on two of the not-beefiest party members, so that likely skewed the carnage total). The party killed them all (eventually), so there were no interrogations. However, they had some Cappadocian-stamped coins on their person, which sent more suspicions to the idea that the Cappadocians were already on the move.

The party quickly sent off some messages (via an animal messenger, the Cartographer’s Guild, and Nikolai’s ghost dragon) to parties that they wanted help from, including:

A raven-born message to Mother Superior Mary Eunice of the Empty Aviary, asking her to send her 30 on-call “agents” (Raven Queen Avengers) to protect the High Lords from assassination.

A Cartographer-teleported message to Ionia, asking King Imperius & General Featherin for help fighting the undead

A Cartographer-teleported message to Dambrath, asking the Church of Pelor for help fighting the undead

A message to the ghost of Io’s angel, asking for any help from the Arkhosian-minded dragonborn of the north.

The party met up with some street urchins who’d been paid to help them (by the rakshasa Kalarel, no less). The urchins (“The Roofrunners”) knew lots about what was going on around town, including two big dinners with various high lords… one hosted by Darius Malfeather with Thayan guests, the other hosted by Paulo Maximo with guest from “New ”/wikis/history-check" class=“wiki-page-link”> Krynn". The party split-up at this point, going off to find various High Lords to speak with before one of the two big dinners that night.

Akara went off to speak with Kalarel, who’d sent her a personal invitation. They talked about… stuff. Kalarel claimed to be a friend, and offered his considerable skills at illusion magic to aide Akara if she decided to attack the Thayans or the minotaurs.

Jak went to speak to Kane Dixon, and had a strange psychic experience with the High Lord that somehow convinced him that the shadowy being was somewhat on their side.

Praxis & Ginger went to speak to Lady River Shadowmantle, who made it clear that she was not pleased with the presence of Valindra Shadowmantle. She also arranged to allow the party to borrow some flying carpets with the unspoken understanding that they might use them to attack the Thayan airship.

Nikolai met with a new sidekick, the Dragonborn kid “Wyrmling”, who is a huge Arkhosia fanboy and also somehow breathes radiant energy as his primary breath weapon.

Nikolai also sent out several (expensive) missives via the Cartographer Guild’s teleportation network to ask for help from other forces the party has met with.

Party 1
The dinner at the Malfeather estate was attended by Praxis, Ginger, and Jak. At this dinner, they learned that Valindra was offering to take the Cappodocian undead with her to Thay in exchange for transporting more slaves servants from Neverwinter to Thay.

Ginger also met with “Elmer”, an ancient treant on the Malfeather estate, who had been given a secret “Blood Magic” tome infused into his leaves by Baba Yaga herself. Ginger read the text, making her one of two people (the other being Lord Malfeather) to know this ancient and horrible magic in this Realm. Jak met with several elemental spirits, who explained that Lord Malfeather was a descendant of an Archfey, and that many fey creatures followed him out of respect for his blood.

Party 2
The dinner at Lord Paulo Maximo’s estate was attended by Akara, Nikolai, and [Fury]. At this party, the group learned that the Minotaurs of “New Krynn” would either defeat the undead in Coventry (in exchange for a land to call their own) or go to the Line to attack the orcs & free up the Coventry soldiers to come home (in exchange for the teleportation circle codes to the Line).

After the parties finished and the various party members had their interactions with different high lords, the following high lords were on-board with the party, or at least willing to come to the late night meeting:

Also falling on the party’s general side were the following:River Shadowmantle: human High Lady of Eridu, staying home to avoid the appearance of complicity if/when the party uses her flying carpets to attack the Thayan airshipFather Onyx Moradinson: dwarven high priest of Moradin & High Lord of Sonlinnor Heights, who said he had “hours of work in prayer on his anvil” to do that evening.Mentha Suleimon: Elderly elf & High Lord of Calmleaf Groves, who said he was too old for late night meetings, and suggested that the party get a good night’s sleep instead.

The session ended with the party at Lord Gortonsalt’s estate in Brakana, preparing for the late-night meeting of the other high lords. The assassin Artemis Entreri arrived, saying he’d been paid by a Mr. Deathclaw to serve as an advisor to the party. Then a porter from the Cartographer’s Guild showed up with two reply messages:

Nikolai, the King has had difficulty gaining support for your request, given what happened the last time Ionia sent an army to fight the undead. However, I am leading a force of volunteers in that direction as quickly as possible. -General Featherin

They will be most impressed by bold skill in martial combat

Date: Sunday, July 28, 2013In-Game Date: 998 AC, 35th day of Summer

NOTE: Johny/Jak was not present for this game. To explain this, we said that Jak, an embodiment of fire, refused to go on a boat.

We began in the Cannery Coast, after about 2 weeks of recovery efforts following the primordial-fueled tornado disasters spawned by the crazy druid Elmyra. An on-leave unit from the Line returned to help with rebuilding, as did aide workers from the nearby district of Jaxon (with plenty of steel). A small but fervent Church of Pelor had risen up in the land, thanks in no small part to the “blind sage” known as “James the Lightbringer”. In addition, an even smaller cult (and orchestra) had risen up to worship/pray to Baba Yaga (though, for reasons related to requests of Archfey that reach the Feywild, Ginger has been receiving all the prayers). Akara had developed an “admirer” in the human bard who called himself the Rain King (and his song, also called “The Rain King”, seemed to be about her). Akara had also overseen the mass funeral of about 500 people killed in the storms.

The game got going with news that a full parliamentary meeting in the capital of Brakana would require a representative of each district to discuss the alleged rumors of an undead uprising. The party was bought passage on a large riverboat heading down the river, which would also have several other High Lords aboard (for potential influencing/schmoozing). Prior to the boat’s arrival, the party did some shopping to get whatever gear they might need. In that process, there was plenty of fey ale purchased, as well as a new axe for Akara (a Frightful Axe +2) and a book, bound in tiger fur, called Defeating Our Darker Selves (which put Akara into quite a mood). Other purchases may have included elvish fabric, owlbear pelts, cheeses, other alcohol, and “party food”.

Once on the boat, the party learned of the presence of several high lords and several other individuals whom they wanted to speak with:On The Party’s SideBob Mapleleaf: half-elf Rep of High Lord Gortonsalt from the Cannery Coast Sharda Hammermain: dwarven High Lady of HammermainiaGeneral Coalskin: goliath High Lord of Southeastern Borderlands, servant of 3 Brothers

After catching up with General Coalskin, the party learned that they needed to impress the North 3 Lords with a show of martial strength in order to speak with them. After extracting Fury from a “conversation” with Madame du Morne, a combat challenge was arranged with Fury & Nikolai on one side, and all 3 North 3 Lords on the other side (played by the other 3 players), fighting to “first stagger” (bloodied value). Fury opened up with a flurry of blows on Lord Hadron, who went down shortly thereafter. Lord Kumon was next, though he took Nikolai out as he went. The final show-down between Fury & Lady Darklon lasted through several tense exchanges, though Fury was ultimately victorious. For their victories, Coalskin imparted on the party some divine boons from his faith: The Triune Brothers of Battle (2 for Fury, 1 for Nikolai).

Ginger had a fondly-remembered conversation with Artemis Entreri, in which he gave her a (charmed) SUPERSHINEY coin, and said that she reminded him of a girl he used to know.

In conversations afterward, the party collected Lords Coalskin, Hadron, Darklon, & Kumon to form military plans that they might either present to the larger Parliament and/or enact on their own while passing a “safer” plan with the larger Parliament. Attempts to sway High Lord Paulo Maximo were unsuccessful, as he had already been approached by two minotaur businessmen who promised to relieve troubles on the Line, freeing up troops to come home & deal with the undead issue.

There was quite a lot of discussion about what to do (or not do) about the Undead Rising issue, and most of that discussion is now fleshed out on a page of the same name, for your perusal. General Coalskin also made it known that he’d just fought off pirates who’d been paid in coin of Cappodocian mint who were trying to sabotage the riverboat, so it seems their forces are already on the move.

The game ended with the boat pulling into view of the Capital, and the sight of a large airship hovering overhead, with figures in red robes flying up and down to it.

Treasure:

Frightful Axe +2 (Lvl 7 weapon… purchased) – Akara

Coin of Good Luck (Lvl 5 consumable) – Ginger

Kord’s (Brothers’) Relentlessness (Lvl 10 alt) – Fury

Kord’s (Brothers’) Mighty Strength (Lvl 3 alt) – Fury

Kord’s (Brothers’) ___________ (Lvl 3/5? alt) – Nikolai

Next Game?
Still trying to figure that out. Two weeks would put us at Sunday, Aug 11. We know that likely doesn’t work for Greg, but we’re still looking to see how others’ schedules interact.

After eating that wolf's soul, I'm going to say you talk like Scooby Doo for a while...

NOTE: Greg/Fury was absent for this session, so we said Fury was protecting Lord Gortonsalt from potential attacks.

The session began with the party being celebrated as heroes. Fresh up from their victory over the 3 witches and their restoration of the flow of creative/fey energy to the region (after a TERRIFYING incident with a certain Grandmother of All Witches), the party was hailed as visionaries and overall awesome folk. While the Halfling Lord Gortonsalt got a little caught-up in his own newly rediscovered creativity (like a super-charged Steve Jobs), his 2nd in command, the half-elf Bob Mapleleaf, tried to get his attention about an urgent matter, but was passed off to the party instead. Bob explained that there were wolf noises coming from the region of Lord Gortonsalt’s family homestead, and that they sounded fierce.

The party rushed off to find Lady Fluffytail outside the entrance to the Gortonsalt burrow, finishing carving “REAPWHATYOUHAVESOWN” into the side of it. The party tried to lecture her about how everything was fixed and now she was going to ruin it… but LF told them that it was not her doing. The druid Elmyra had made deals with “a devil-like man who used illusions to hide his claws and smelled like a predator”, and had sent unnatural wolves to attack Gortonsalt’s family.

The party went down to find the Gortonsalt clan slaughtered, and they fought several elementally-charged demon hounds. Immediately afterward, though, they heard a loud storm outside. They emerged to see that five massive ultra-tornadoes had begun destroying the district, and some Arcana checks and Lady Fluffytail’s mention of a name ( Ty-h’kadi) revealed that a not-quite-defeated primordial lost somewhere in the Elemental Chaos might possibly be reaching its hand through to this world (enabled by the recent entry of Bane into the world, which weakened the PRIMALBAN that keeps primordials out), and those 5 tornadoes might be its fingers.

The party had scarcely any time to figure out what to do, though they knew that they could not stop the tornadoes themselves. Jak privately tried to ask his god, Agni, for help, but found that the only help Agni could offer was either a massive heat wave (which would cause destructive climate shifts across the region) or creating a volcano (which would also be bad). A request to Mr. Lee (via his card) resulted in the information that one soul had been sold to create the storm, so more would be required to end it. Praxis tried connecting her sliver of the World Tree to the Feywild for some help, and a strange elf-faced awkward black bird showed up. He said he would carry messages to “Grandmother”, but that he was there to collect the soul of her new Granddaughter because she’d seen Ginger’s face in her pot, which meant she was likely to die. Eventually Ginger conveyed the situation to the bird, and the bird said that “Grandmother” would want payment, likely in the form of information. The party offered up secret information about gods, and the bird took that offer back to the Feywild.

The (now clearly insane) druid Elmyra showed up with another of the awful demon-wolves, and the 5 tornadoes appeared to be at her command as well… until a loud CACKLE echoed over the storms, and a spinning hut appeared at the center of the 5 tornadoes, spinning counter to them and drawing their bases to the roof of the hut. Baba Yaga, who left her house so she could ride a strange 2-wheeled contraption through the storm while laughing insanely, was apparently keeping the storms busy until the summoner could be killed (which would eventually cause the storms to weaken and dissipate).

The battle with the druid was not a pretty one, with lightning bursts called down fairly regularly and harsh winds blowing everyone everywhere (except Elmyra, who was firmly rooted). By the time the party finally got Elmyra on the ropes, she took some time to charge up a super strike of lightning in the clouds above her, and dropped it on the entire party. Lady Fluffytail, however, saw this coming, and yelled out “NO!” as she leapt from ground to shoulder to head to the air, catching the lightning strike herself, saving the rest of the party, but utterly destroying herself (all that remained was a flaming tail).

The shock of killing her spirit-tied companion snapped Elmyra into semi-sanity again, but when she saw what she had done, she let go of her roots and let the storm take her.

The party then worked to save as many people as possible and control as much of the damage as they could. Some went to fight off the minor storm elementals that had been spawned throughout the region. Others cared for the injured & dying. Others helped people seek shelter in mines that could be isolated from the outside. One of the people Akara saved was a sort of bard who took a shining to her, and over the next week worked with his band to make a song about the experience, calling himself the “Rain King” because he survived the rains with the help of the magic raven lady.Hear the song here.

Then, about a week later, Baba Yaga came to collect. She invited each member alone into her hut to share with her a secret they knew about the gods. For most of them, the rest of the party was able to watch via Ginger’s phlegm/gelatinous cube familiar, which served as a kind of screen.

Praxis shared the details about the “Death of Zehir” painting, the bits about the “sword that could kill a god”, and also gave up her “Fortune’s Nod” alt reward. Baba Yaga responded by waving the sword around and saying that it couldn’t kill a god… then putting it back in Praxis’ hand and saying THAT sword could kill a god. She also told Praxis to focus on her humanity.

Jak explained his belief that he is the living embodiment of the tiefling god Agni on this plane, and also explained the undead plague he was sent to stop. Baba Yaga told him that he had messages to deliver, then made him heat up her tea (which was “better, but STILLTHEWRONGFLAVOR!”)

Nikolai told of the location of the lost Archangel of Oghma they had found back in the Underdark. Baba Yaga spoke of the angel with an almost remembered fondness, as if she had known her at some point.

Akara shared her history connected to Lusemnee, Zehir’s murdered daughter. She also explained her supposed connection to Kalarel, and her fears that she would become a rakshasa death angel of some sort. Baba Yaga told her to splash water on her face if she felt herself becoming a tiger, because cats didn’t like that. She also told her to not to worry so much about herself, because an opportunity would soon arise to deal with a devil she knew.

Finally, Ginger went in and spilled the beans on the summoning of Bane into the world that the party was accidentally responsible for. Baba Yaga seemed less concerned with the metaphysical consequences, and more curious about whether that boy had ever learned his lessons from that book of beginner swordplay she’d given him.

As the party finished clean-up and prepared to sail south to the capital of Brakana, they received a note from the pirate Blackheart Deathclaw, letting them know that he wished to employ their services in the capital to aide him in taking out a “mutual annoyance”, which the party understood to mean Mr. Lee.

Experience & Treasure Stuff
No big treasure (tornado kind of destroyed stuff), but everyone can now advance to Level 7 and take an extended rest before the next session.

Oh, and Ginger did get an hourglass that appears to collect the prayers of area residents who now worship Baba Yaga… for what that’s worth. I’m sure nothing bad will come of that.

"The Devil You Know is NOT the Devil You Know"

NOTE: Greg/Fury & Micah/Nikolai were not present for this session. Their characters were played as NPCs by other players (and sometimes Joe). We also (re)introduced Johny to the game with his new character, Jak.

The session began with the party going down a dark stairway carved into the rock. As they headed down into the blackness, using their own lights, they ran into many stick-doll-symbols hanging from the ceiling. While none of the party understood them, they at least understood that they were put there by witches.

They then followed the sound of running water down to a room where several very dirty underground rivers were emptying into a pool… a pool with a whirlpool in the middle. The water seemed to clean up near the whirlpool, though, and there were no other ways out. Elizabeth/Ginger’s fairly wings shriveled when she got near the dirty water, but Nikolai was able to carry her (via his waterwalking powers) to the center, where the two of them could jump into the more natural/magical/fey whirlpool. The rest of the party took a flying leap and also fell into the spiral.

Down below, the party emerged into a cave that was NOT devoid of magic/fey energy like the upper world was. As Ginger’s wings grew back and the arcane characters basked in their reconnection to magic, the party saw in the next room that a tiefling was apparently held in place by bonds of brimstone & fire while he stared at a triune statue of 3 women (maiden, mother, crone), his face locked in a silent scream, his eyes moving rapidly. Ginger recognized the statue material as Dreamstone, a rare material from the feywild, harvested from people’s dreams. As the party examined the tiefling, though, and old friend showed up.

Mr. Lee, the devil businessman some of the party remembered from the Dambrath Casino and the brief Elemental Chaos mission against the Smoke Lord. He was just on his way out, having been turned down by the denizens further in, when he ran into the party. He offered his business card to the party, though Lisa/Praxis & Valarie/Akara did not accept it (Greg & Micah, you can decide if your characters did or not). At the snap of your fingers the card will appear in your hand (doing 1d4 fire damage), and then you can activate the consumable power, being sure that Mr. Lee will hear the next thing said. If the power is not used, releasing the card in the air will make it disappear again to it’s infernal pocket dimension.

It was also apparent that Mr. Lee was not actually holding the cards… that they appeared to be held by claws that were not visible, and he was only projecting the illusion of well-manicured nails. It’s probably a devil thing.

Using Nikolai’s Thought Sending ritual, Akara was able to tune into the dream power and insert herself into the tiefling, Jak’s, dream. Jak was tied to a post atop a pitifully smoldering fire, being danced around & mocked by 3 fey creatures of earth, air, & water (respectively). Akara appeared as a dark angel with black wings and a curvy assassin’s dagger protruding through the front of her chest blade-first (also with tiger eyes). As dreams go, though, she didn’t really look at herself, instead only seeing Jak & the fey things. Eventually they figured out that they could attack the fey creatures to break the statue, allowing Jak to wake up. Of course, every miss hit Jak right in the brain, doing psychic damage… but they figured it out.

Jak woke up, make introductions, and agreed to help the party with the witches who’d entrapped him. Mr. Lee, after failing to make any lasting deals with the party, went on his way, mentioning that the door was just down the hallway, but the party might not like how hard they had to knock.

Going down the hallway, indeed the party saw a door they did not want to see. Actually it was more of a wall. Of people. Transmuted together. And screaming. It appeared that all of these folks used to be elves, eladrin, drow, gnomes, etc, but that they were used as calibration test cases for the thing that was stealing the fey magic from the surface. When they were used up, they were transmuted into a wall by the witches. The party, after some brief discussion, decided to mercy-kill every one of them before blasting away at the wall. It mostly worked, though there was still plenty of screaming while the process went on.

After that, the party wandered through a corridor from which they heard 3 voices talking about a plan to “kill grandmother.” Ginger immediately knew who the grandmother of all witches was, and everyone freaked out a little. However, the witches chose that time to drop their illusion, showing that the party was actually in a large cavern, surrounded by the 3 witches. There was also a large gem that resembled the Matrix of Stability hanging near the top of the room, apparently pulling energy from above it. Combat ensued.

While the witches kept most of the party busy, Lisa/Praxis teleported up to hang from a chain near the gem, trying to figure it out and break it. At first she damaged the gem, which also damaged every fey creature in the room. Then she eventually figured out how to direct the gem, which blasted one of the witches, but stayed open with fey power, summoning a strange rock that looked kind of like a hut with a door facing the wall.

By this point in the combat, Jak had summoned his demon nature, and slaughtered a witch next to the hut. When he tried to use his soul-drinker warlock power, though, a hand reached out of a window in the hut and grabbed the soul before he could get it. Akara hit a different witch with her “make you undead after you die” power, and when the witches were all 3 dead, the skeleton witch rose up to stand by Valarie.

The hut door tried to open, to the sound of frustrated old woman grunts as it hit the wall. Then the hut STOOD UP ON LARGECHICKEN-LIKELEGS to turn, letting the archfey inside exit the hut, her stew pot trailing behind her. The party looked upon Baba Yaga and were pretty terrified.

Showing the archfey proper deference, the party actually managed not to piss off Baba Yaga as she threw the soul of one of the witches into her stew to marinate for a millennium & a day, and summoned the undead body of the other to come stir the pot. It turned out that these 3 witches were Fomorians, and were seeking to perfect an anti-fey weapon to use against Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga clearly took exception to this, smashing the gem into tiny diamonds. The party learned from the First Hag that the gem was harvested from Malachi Jones’ nightmare, and was a scary version of what the Matrix of Stability might be. The Grandmother of all witches gave some gifts to some of the party, giving Praxis a 1/week Rain Stick and giving Jak a gem that could see from the feywild into the corresponding area of the real world. Then she counted her daugthters… “Three I have lost, and two are returned. Need another daughter,” she said, staring at Ginger.

After a brief hesitation, Ginger agreed to let Baba Yaga transform her into a witch. After that, the hag started to waddle back towards her hut, stopping by Akara to sniff her (“so close her nose hairs tickle your flesh”) and then say to her, very bluntly, “The devil you know is NOT the devil you know.” She then looked at Nikolai, calling him “the tone deaf one,” and ordered some instruments in her hut to come out and “play it right”. They played a version of Baba Yaga’s song (dancing & spinning), but with some very unpleasant notes scattered throughout it. Baba Yaga seemed to enjoy it, though, and told Nikolai that if he ever played it wrong again, she’d eat him in her stew.

She then went back to her hut, with all her various things following her, and it stood up, danced & spun, and disappeared into the feywild, leaving a portal that let the party out in the spot of the Farmville portal they’d seen last game. Up above, things seemed to be getting better, with creativity and inventiveness suddenly returning to everyone’s minds. The plantlife was not immediately better, but it seemed to be on its way, and Lord Gortonsalt thanked the party for their work and agreed to work on trying to mitigate this “pollution” thing the party told him about. He also agreed to support the party in their attempts to sway the Parliament in the capital to deal with the Cappadocian undead uprising issue.

Everything seemed great and happy and bubbly and shiney in the Cannery Coast, and I’m certain that’s exactly how things will stay as we start next session, because every loose end was taken care of completely and without exception. Yay!

"We can't send it back... THE SQUIRREL IS GONE!"

The session began with the party settling down to a well-deserved rest on the evening of Summer 15. Their rest was short-lived, however, as interruptions seemed to arrive fairly regularly.

The first was Kalarel (in his Elven Pirate Blackheart Deathclaw guise), who explained that immortals (i.e., deva & rakshasas) within miles could feel that a god had been here. He also revealed that he had, through a wealthy Coventry heiress (the half-elf Marishka Downfeather), purchased the land in that region. He also said he’d invited some interested parties to come and survey the site.

Soon afterward, the “interested parties” started arriving in the form of various worshippers of Bane, all of whom wanted to see the site of their god’s appearance, and to hear the story from the mouths of those who’d seen it. The party did their best to keep any of the servants from telling the tale, and generally tried to stonewall the Bane-ites without openly appearing combative (since the party still hadn’t gotten their extended rest yet). The Bane-ites were, in no particular order:Titus Pullo – half-orc male fighter, eager to see the site of Bane’s arrival and bathe in any blood that might be there.Maledictus – drow male wizard & ritualist, eager to hear specific details of the ritual. Axe-hand – dwarven barbarian (with an axe hand), multi-tour veteran of Orcish conflict, last of his family line. Lady Darklon – shadar-kai female fishing/river-pirate captain, up from river. +4 piratesGen Antillar Coalskin – goliath male warlord, Coventry High Lord of SE Borders district. +20 cavalry

There was also a squirrel that arrived, Lady Fluffytail, but for a completely different reason. Lady Fluffytail was an emissary from Elmyra, a local druid who wanted to contract The Little Death (who, conveniently, looked exactly like Ginger/Elizabeth) to assassinate the High Lord of the Cannery Coast, Hormel Gortonsalt, because his canning business was destroying the environment. The squirrel was gone before Ginger could say no, though, so they waited until the next evening, when they were given instructions on how to contact the druid.

Nikolai/Micah then went to talk to the servants they’d inherited, to explain to them that while the Bane-ites might offer them the chance to buy their freedom and get jobs, in reality they were evil people who shouldn’t be trusted… and that they should just remain slaves a little longer until they could get to a safe place where Nikolai could arrange for them to purchase their freedom away from the Church of Bane. This didn’t go as well as the party had hoped, but they did manage to get through to one servant, a fledgling Iounic scholar named “Kira” (short for Malechira… after the famous Ionian wizard Malachi), who had been Ambassador Tepes’ record-keeper, and who warned the party about a rabble-rousing servant named Kelsier who might be a problem.

The next morning Nikolai went to speak to Kelsier, who was actually not contracted as one of this group of slaves/servants. He played the “slavery is wrong” moral card, and apparently has designs to murder any lords who enslave their populaces. He assured Nikolai that currently he was low on the list, though, so that was mostly okay, everyone guessed.

Praxis/Lisa went to speak to General Coalskin, who readily heard the information about the undead threat, and said he’d commit his troops to protect the homeland. Praxis noticed that the General did not have a symbol of Bane on his armor (like the other Bane-ites), but instead had some kind of triune symbol that incorporated Bane’s symbol, Kord’s symbol, and a third symbol she’d not seen before. It seemed clear that Coalskin wasn’t 100% a Bane worshipper, which gave Praxis a little hope. He also asked to see Praxis’ sword (the one she’d drawn on Bane the day before). When she handed it to him, his irises became the triune symbol and he tensed up. Then he said to Praxis that she should not tell the Bane worshippers, but that her sword was a blade that could kill a god.

Nikolai showed up, and Gen. Coalskin warned them both that there were many “Elvish” types in the Capital who were more interested in politics than governance. Nikolai said he’d take the advice to heart as the party headed to the capital.

After leaving the site of the future Bane-ite church… er… I mean “combat academy and gladiatorial arena”, the party headed into the Cannery Coast, which they could see pretty early on was not “healthy” in the natural sense. That night, after enabling the pay-off of their servants’ contracts, the party headed up to the largest tree they could find, where the hamadryad druid Elmyra plead with the party to murder Lord Gortonsalt (even after Ginger had made it very clear that she was NOT the assassin Little Death). The party said they’d look into what was going wrong, but did not agree to kill anyone.

Going further into the Cannery Coast, the party realized that their fey servants (including the gnome bard Ficto) were losing their energy (Ginger also felt this unnatural exchaustion). They decided to find a boat heading out of the district and a guardian to watch their weakened wards until they got back to full strength. Eventually they found Shadrach, a psion shade who was an ex-Hunter, and he agreed to watch over the 5 sick fey folk. They booked them passage on a dwarven vessel, and Niki/Kyone joined them, feeling very unwell herself. The party then headed off to meet High Lord Hormel Gortonsalt, the Halfling leader of this district.

Lord Gortonsalt was open and inviting, though horribly uninspired. He took the party on a tour of the facilities, showing them all sorts of ways that the operation damages the environment, but then a bell rang and the party witnessed a teleportation circle to Farmville that was powered by some energy source below. Lord Gortonsalt said it had always been there, and that he didn’t actually know where the power came from, just that it charged up about once a week.

The party searched the facility for a door downward, and ended after they found a long stairway leading into darkness…

"Achra?"

The party started off entering the “Room of Power” at the bottom of the Plague Doctor’s facility, where the Egg of Io was being used to power the evil energies used in the research. This was causing lots of negative energy to be poured back into the egg, which everyone agreed was probably pretty bad. The two surviving members of the Retrievers, the goliath Straga & the elf Flicker, tried hitching a ride on the energy stream, accidentally crashing into the egg, dying, and being immediately transformed into undead creatures by the darkness in the egg. The Plague Doctor showed up soon after, and a big fight ensued.

Once the party was victorious, they freed the egg from the magical apparatuses that were holding it, and found that there was great darkness in the egg, though some purity remained. While they were debating what to do with the Egg and how to escape, Nikolai/Micah said out loud “We need to get out of here”, at which point the Egg teleported the entire party (including the sort-of alive Straga) out of the facility (also with any items the party had meant to grab, like much of the library, and also with Kyone/Niki, who was trapped elsewhere in the facility).

Up top, they learned that Ambassador Tepes had actually been searching for the Egg, based on tips he’d gotten from his family’s guardian spirt/angel of Io, but that he couldn’t speak his plans out loud for fear that evil powers would find the Egg. He was devastated when he learned of the darkness in the Egg, though, and volunteered himself to take the darkness into his body to free the Egg of the burden. The party was a little hesitant on this, but they mostly went along with it. Nikolai eavesdropped on a conversation Tepes had with his spirit guide, and learned that whatever Tepes was doing, he had to willingly sacrifice his honor and his place in his family’s bloodline to do it. Afterward the Ambassador gave his family ring to Nikolai (which Micah later realized made HIM the new Arkhosian ambassador… and possibly also a member of Tepes’ family).

The servants began ritual preparation, based on magical motes the Ambassador had sent out to guide them (which meant the servants had no idea what the ritual did). Several of the servants were singled out to take ritual baths and dress in white, though their purpose was unclear. Examination of the ritual revealed that it was likely a version of the ritual used to create a dracolich, an undead dragon that is all kinds of awful, so the party tried to devise ways to capture Tepes once the dark power was inside of him.

It seemed Tepes had a similar idea, because the party found him about to sign a contract with Zira, the dark fey assassin’s guild head (whom we remember from the battle at the casino when Scout/Johny left the group). The party read the contract, but could not verify that Zira had the power to “summon the White Mists and banish Tepes to the lost Shadowfell realm of Ravenloft, where even the Raven Queen’s servants cannot reach trapped souls.” Though there was a clause that if Zira couldn’t do it, she’d become the property/general of whatever dark creature the Ambassador became. The party thought this was less than an ideal situation.

But while most of the party was convincing Tepes not to sign the contract, Nikolai was down at the Egg, trying to ask the dragon-angel-spirit to help. It merely said “Ask the Egg”, so Nikolai asked if the Egg could summon a hunter strong enough to deal with the dark creature that Tepes would become. Just as the rest of the party came down to see what Nikolai was up to, the name “”/wikis/religion" class=“wiki-page-link”> Achra" came from the Egg into Nikolai’s head. He said “Achra?”… just before the God of Domination and Conquest, Bane (who used to be called Achra), was summoned in front of them all.

Nikolai quickly realized that, at the time of Io’s death and the egg’s creation, Achra was the strongest warrior among the gods, which is why the Egg chose to summon him. However, the Egg was also unaware of the binding powers and agreements that ended the Dawn War and keep the gods from entering the Prime Material Plane, so Bane was more than a bit confused when he was suddenly manifest in a place he could not be. The God of Conquest recovered quickly, though he was probably still unaware of what rules governed his presence in the Prime Material Plane… which gave the party a miniscule chance of dealing with him.

The party explained the problem with the darkness in the Egg. At first, Bane asked the party to give him the dark power in the Egg directly. They thought that was probably a bad idea. Then Bane asked if he could hunt whatever the power became… and that seemed slightly more amenable to the party. Bane marked Tepes’ head with the tip of his spear, marking him as prey bound for Bane’s hunting realm. Bane also used a word to name the Tepes/darkness creature that would emerge from the Dragon God Egg, calling it “Dracula” (a supernal word referring to the destructive power of a dragon). Bane then left to prepare his hunt (or maybe out of fear that other Powers would learn he had broken the Dawn Contract?).

Then the Ritual began. The party was tasked with protecting the ritual from interruption. The dark energies that gathered blotted all light from the sky… that is, until Jimmy’s body came rushing at the party, demanding in a loud Supernal voice that they must stop. One of Pelor’s archangels of vengeance had inhabited Jimmy’s body, creating a sword of radiant flame in his hand, wings of fire bursting from his shoulders, and eyes that shone with the radiance of the sun. While the angel was very direct & demanding, it seemed unaware (or just didn’t care) about the fact that it’s possession of Jimmy was burning him alive. Just as the party felt like they would have to fight the angel – somehow without hurting Jimmy in the process – a dark rider appeared on a black steed on a nearby hill. He loaded several arrows onto a greatbow and fired bolts of shadow at the angel, knocking the angel out of Jimmy’s body and pinning it to the rock behind it. The angel dissipated back to the Astral Sea, cursing the party as it left “MAYYOUREAPWHATYOUHAVESOWNHERE!” The dark rider, whom the party figured out was probably Jimmy’s dad the evil paladin, rode off to leave Jimmy unconscious but still alive with the party.

The party turned back to the ritual itself, where all those white-wearing, specially washed servants had entered the circle. As the darkness arose from the Egg, it infused Tepes with unnatural speed, letting him fly around the circle, tearing out the throats of each of these specially prepared virgin sacrifices as he went. That ferocity was enough to draw the rest of the darkness into Tepes, who became a large creature that was at once both dragon and humanoid, but total evil. As it took it’s form, though, horns were heard in the distance, and the creature was gated to Bane’s realm, where it began to run as the latest prey in Bane’s most dangerous game.

The party found the Egg fully cleansed of the evil energy, though much weaker than it had been. Nikolai theorized that this was probably a good thing, since the hatching of the Egg was part of a dragonborn prophesy about the end of the world, so it’d be okay if the Egg needed a few extra millennia to get back up to strength before hatching.

Soon, however, all 5 draconic members of the Mithril Arm showed up to take the Egg into custody. They demolished the Plague Doctor’s facility, bestowed many gifts upon the party, and thanked them each for their roles in protecting one of dragonkind’s most sacred trusts. One of them mentioned that her grandmother had been given an item to hold on to by a previous version of Akara (the Sash of Vitality Ceaseless, part of a deva item set that Akara is re-collecting). By the time the dragons left, the party had an upgraded set of carts (pulled by drakes), 50 or so indentured servants (whose contracts made them the property of the one who wore the Ambassador’s ring… which Nikolai now has), a bunch of books about diseases and how to potentially use them to create an undead plague, and a mess of magic items.

Oh, and they settled down for a bit of a rest since, you know, it had been kind of a hectic day.

"Information: You're all going to die!"

[Note: Niki/Kyone and Nikolai/Micah were not present for this adventure. Since Nikolai was present already, we ran him as an NPC during the session.]

Continuing their exploration of the Cappadocian Plague Doctor’s facility (at the behest of the old dragonborn Ambassador Vlad Tepes), the party had convinced a room on the 3rd floor that Akara/Valarie was actually an undead version of one of her previous incarnations: Dr. Arkham. The sensors, however, picked up on the life signs of the rest of the party, and the session began with a combat as the wight doctors & zombie medical assistants rose to attack the PCs.

The fight was fierce, though the party survived without any major deaths. Afterward, they found their way to the next level, which was protected by a large magically-empowered door with a carving of 5 chromatic dragons on it. Realizing that they were not the designated person for whom the door would automatically open, they each approached one of the dragons to interact with the door. After a few missteps and some damage from the ensuing breath weapons of the door, the party activated the opening magic, and headed into the inner sanctum of the Plague Doctor.

Exploring the floor, the party found a large library with extensive texts about diseases, as well as some grisly evidence of the Plague Doctor’s chaotic evil nature (a bird cage of canaries that had been tortured to death, a ritual book made of mithril dragon hatchling flesh, and a hidden box with some “keepsakes” taken from “that fool paladin”.

The party also found a haunting painting of two characters who bore strong resemblances to Akara & Praxis. The painting was titled “False Prophesy: The Death of Zehir” and was signed by an artist named Anohk.

The following room presented more horrors than anything else: hundreds of shattered dragon shells, the remains of many dead dragon hatchlings (of all types), documents related to siphoning magical energy from dragon eggs, and (oh yeah) some undead dragon hatchlings. A second fight broke out, with the party doing their best to lay these unfortunately creatures to a final rest.

After this second battle, the party waited outside the door to the main power room. The pulses of energy from the room rang in Akara’s blood as coming from a god, though they told Nikolai’s blood that it was a dragon. The session ended with the party about to open the doors into the Room of Power, where they would likely meet a dragon god.

"May Helmsgard Stand Forever!"

The session began with a sidebar to the break-away group: Greg/Fury & Kyone. Trapped in a different room of the facility, they tried smashing & blasting their way through various doors & walls. Eventually, they found a weak section of wall with energy behind it. This was a large stream of mostly necrotic energy. Fury reached out to it, and was sucked into the flow. While in the stream, she gained knowledge that this was a loop of energy through the whole facility, powering it. As the stream passed different areas, bits of energy were siphoned off, leaving mostly necrotic energy to flow back to whatever the power source was. Fury was able to grab a handhold at one of the outlets, and break in through a vent into the opposite end of the room the rest of the party was in.

The battle was fast & fierce, with the remains of Mr. Wesker appearing as a vampiric mist that attacked the party (or just compelled the party to attack itself). The insane duergar and equally insane githzerai & githyanki prisoners attacked as well, with Holt spending much of his time trying to regrow his innards (though he did utilize a nice dragon claw version of magic missile that Lady Artania had taught him). When the battle ended and Holt left his cell, his body started aging rapidly. He died with a weapon in his hand, calling out “May Helmsgard stand forever!”

The party briefly communicated with the other party via a looking pool, learning that the “dead” side of the facility was where they were doing research into how to bolster various undead creatures to make them stronger. The Retrievers had taken losses, but were going to try and find a way to ride the energy stream to the source so they could shut down the facility. After they left, a horde of zombies was visible through the pool, and a face that looked oddly like an undead younger brother of Lisa/Praxis was visible before the vision magic cut out.

The session ended with the party going down another level, where the sign on the door said that living personnel were not allowed beyond that point. They tricked the door sensor into thinking that Akara was an undead Dr. Arkham, but as the party entered the coffin-filled room to receive Dr. Arkham’s “newly-assigned resting place”, the room sensed the other living members of the party and the hologram appeared to say “Information: You’re all going to die.”

Millions could die without this information

The session began with the party heading south towards the Cannery Coast after dealing with a minotaur incursion. Their intention was to drum up support in districts along the way to the Coventry capital city of Brakana, where they would make the case to the Parliament of Lords that actions needed to be taken against an undead uprising from the (supposedly) long-defeated & destroyed nation of Cappadocia. Along the way they got a bit sidetracked.

The party ran into a large digging operation, where an elderly dragonborn named Ambassador Vladimir Tepes (from the former Arkhosian region of Wallachia) was digging for artifacts that would help the Society of Life. He said that the research buried in this vault of a “Plague Doctor” could help the Society to solve all sorts of diseases, and to learn about methods of disease treatment from hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately, there were two entrances, and the mercenary team he’d hired was not exactly what he considered trustworthy. The party agreed to go into the other entrance, guaranteeing that any research they found would be made available to the Ambassador. The contract they signed was an old Arkhosian one, with penalties listed as “Every paladin of Bahamut will see your mark of dishonor for a year and a day.”

After speaking with the 3-member mercenary team “The Retrievers”

The magic doors said that life or death had to be given, but that the opposite would be returned. The party chose “death”, slicing their hands open and pressing them to the door, while the mercenaries chose “life” (sacrificing healing surges). Our group was consequently teleported to the side of the facility where experiments were done on the living.

It became clear early on that something was definitely not right about this facility. Between a magically holographic facility rep (played by the holographic doctor from ST:Voyager), the sealed “lock-down” state of the facility, and the fact that they appeared to be infecting healthy individuals with various diseases to take notes on the progression of the diseases, specifically with notes related to how open the diseases made the subjects to “necrothaumaturgical influence”, it was clear that this was not a facility where they were attempting to cure diseases. They were breeding them and weaponizing them for some purpose.

The party was split-up (due to Greg & Niki not being present), but the rest carried on with the investigation. The facility recognized the optical print of Akara, calling her “Dr. Arkham”, and welcoming her. Soon the party had found the body of the late doctor, one of Akara’s previous incarnations, as well as a few magic items related to healing.

In a lower level, the party happened upon live subjects trapped in perpetual regeneration rooms. Most were insane, though one dwarf was just ripping his own innards out to keep the doctors from being able to experiment on him (you know, like any sane dwarf would do). This turned out to be Holt Helmsgard, who had studied wizardry under Lady Artania and was eager to return to his clan’s great city of Helmsgard.

The party did further research in this area, finding notes that indicated a particular administrator, Mr. Wesker, would visit each month to motivate the doctors. Holt told the party that Mr. Wesker was a vampire who was repeatedly dominating the doctors into forgetting their misgivings about the experiments, and altering their memories to make him a “trusted friend” in their minds.

The session ended with the party about to activate the magic that would open the doors to the 4 occupied cells, while also being fearful that Mr. Wesker’s office was just across the way, and possibly occupied by the vampire himself.